Charlotte Dujardan and horse Valegro come out swinging with a riveting performance to claim back-to-back individual dressage gold medals.

Charlotte Dujardan came to Rio for two reasons, to defend her golden title and add another monumental accomplishment to her legacy.  Dujardin earns her third gold medal in Rio, tying cyclist Laura Trott for the most decorated British female in Olympic history. Dujardin is also the second rider to hold the World, European, and Olympic titles.

The confidence on Dujardan’s face as she entered hinted that she would deliver something incredible. The reigning gold medalist and world record holder did just that. The duo thoroughly impressed judges with a fun and vibrant performance choreographed to a Brazilian medley.

The combination of the duo’s powerful piaffe passage work, and execution of a difficult  floor plan earned the duo their second consecutive individual gold with a score of 93.928, making Dujardin the only rider to score a 90 or above on the dressage test in the four days of the competition.

Germany’s Isabel Werth proves to be “the Dressage Queen” earning her 10th Olympic medal to become the most decorated rider in Equestrian Olympic history, surpassing Andy van Grunsven of the Neatherlands.

Werth falls short to the reigning Gold medalist, Charlotte Dujardin with a score of 89.071, but happily accepts her fifth individual medal. Werth and Dujardan remained neck and neck in Rio, but Werth could not top Dujardan’s impressive artistic and technical performance in Deodoro Monday afternoon.

Werth’s German teammate Christina Broring-Sprehe earns a spot on the podium in both team and individual dressage competitions. Broring-Sprehe brings home her first individual Olympic title, Bronze.  The battle for gold remained between Broring-Sprehe, Werth, and Dujardin since the Grand Prix round. Broring-Sprehe hoped for revenge against the reigning champion, Dujardin after falling .25% short of Dujardin and Valegro’s score at the Freestyle in Aachen last summer.

Team USA’s Laura Graves fell short of medal range with an impressive score of 85.196. Graves and Diddy delivered a very powerful and polished performance that strived in the artistic category, but unfortunately fell short of Broring-Sprehe’s score of 87.142.  

The jumping competition will resume Tuesday Aug. 16 at 9:00 am EST for team qualification. 

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